Cool machine! We like ours, but nobody off the street understands how to follow the multipliers exactly, and the money shot (Death Star/Hyperloop) is difficult to hit for most, which is a weird design decision. It's a game that you won't master or get bored of easily, that's for sure. But if it wasn't for the theme, the general public would have zero connection with it. Last audit showed the Death Star had been destroyed 3 times since updated code late last year, and once was myself videoing a little tutorial showing how to do it.
So yeah, it's a fast Steve Ritchie design, but with an extra shot squeezed in, like as though Steve was tired of players saying all his designs were the same simple-return fan layouts, so he decided "Ok, how about I make the shots smaller, faster, add one in the middle with a skinny-steep ramp, with a super sonic loop surrounding the entire playfield powered by a turbo-magnet, how about that? Also a horseshoe shot and a bunch of rebound targets of death, cool? Different and difficult enough for ya?" It has the standard fan design with outer loop Ritchie is famous for, but at the end of the day it's a general public theme, with the shot layout difficulty and scoring complexity suited more for tournament level players.
Like K7 said the market is soft right now, and judging by how long it's taking to sell machines, it's likely getting softer. We paid $7900 for our LE. I think new release LE's are retailing close to $13,000 now.
